All Australians will be entitled to government-funded training if the states and territories sign up to a new federal government plan.
The national training entitlement would mean anyone from Year 10 students to retirement age would be eligible for taxpayer-funding to get qualifications up to a Certificate III.
This would include language and literacy courses.
The government also plans to introduce interest-free deferred loans to help students pay for vocational education courses.
They would be similar to the HECS loans, which have been available to university students for 23 years.
Prime Minister Julia Gillard today announced her intention to take the new measures to the next Council of Australian Governments meeting, to be held on April 13.
"With these reforms, VET will no longer be the poor relation," she said in a speech to the Australian Industry Group.
"It can be fairly said that our nation's long neglect of vocational education is at an end."
The states and territories would need to ensure only quality providers with an established record could access public funding.
They would also have to lay out their plan to navigate the established TAFE systems through the changes.
To sweeten the deal for the states and territories, the Commonwealth will offer $7.2 billion over five years to help pay for the training system.
It will also share out another $1.75 billion to support the changes.
Ms Gillard said the federal funding for the national training entitlement would potentially amount to $155 million a year.
The skills package also includes setting up a MySkills website to give information on training providers, course options, employment outcomes and fees.
Students would get a unique student identifier that would let them track the qualifications they received from different providers.
Ms Gillard said better approaches to training, teacher quality and student support could help about 375,000 extra students complete their qualifications in the next five years.
